We Be Jamming' -

Flowers, even those boring ones we see everyday, have a kind of magic upon close examination. True, maybe a more cliche-ish statement could not be made, but on a day of a funeral for a brother of a close associate, they just had a singular simplicity that strive for in our homebuilding.

Yes, it's true, I some somehow compared a flower to our homes, but that's why I'm good at what I do. I'm shameless. But, to be honest, actually it's not shamelessness that propels me most - it's more a sense of a mission to continue to build this business in order to provide respite for the weary urban toiler.

FYI, when I saw this sign I went in the other direction immediately, without hesitation.

Wow, tell me that doesn't look like a painting, or an illustration, or some computer-generated graphic - but no, someone actually gets to live in this house in a few months.

Since I've started this business 10 years ago with little more than a credit card which would have revoked my privileges long before if they had any inkling of the risks I was about to take, I have founded and grew a few businesses. One of the good ones - though super tough - is Ecotech Spray Foam Insulation. Started at the height of the uber-panic, super-negative March 2009 with the really cool help of the First National Bank of Jeffersonville, we have grown this company ever since.

That's the thing about this journey - the twists, turns in the road, road less taken, risks endeavored, yields unyielded, stop signs ignored - it's been a wild road. One of the oldest and most important is my relationship with my local bank, Jeff Bank - I don't think there is a better example of a banking relationship that works, a banking relationship that has organically grown, a banking relationship that had the malleability, the flexibility, the access to the decision-makers, the small town big vision of relationship-building. You want to talk relationships - then talk about me starting with a $100k loan when I needed $300k in 2003, and evolving that relationship into a $5m+ multiple business, recession-defying co-dependency that has been inarguably mutually beneficially.

It's a very small town do-good story but actually it's a national story of what works. What works is relationships, credit-worthiness, risk-taking within historical parameters, just general old-fashioned conservative character analysis and bill paying history,

Here's the insulation.

Here's the sheetrock... (after the code enforcement inspection of course)...

And my son, through a grided-grated table at the bookstore. That boy, for whatever reason be it nature or nurture, is just simply a powerful human being.

And the foundation of Farm 20 (F20G), who must be to be busy in the real life to keep up with his guest blog posts but it don't matter cause we will be showing what he's made of in this cool house creation of his and his newly wedded bride.

Here's the footings of the house.

Here's the foundation of the house...

Here's the frame of the house... Lucas and I have this soothing house before he goes to bed where we do 'what I did today' where we recount each thing we did that day for his benefit before we say our prayers and go to sleep.

and the cool garage with green house extension being readied for the concrete slab this morning, under a darkening sky and risks of thunder storms, never a good mix for a newly poured concrete floor.

And lovely Barn VI, just getting started but moving right along.

It didn't take long to move it right along with the tyvek and metal galvanized roof.

And Farm 19 is no Slacker, with perfect lines and dormer and porch and windows and what have you.

Oh boy it just goes to show you can't judge a book by it's cover cause this house, like an onion or even better like the firecracker wife in the Blind Side, just keeps revealing itself with each passing day.